Arrangement for guiding the movable plate of a horizontal press in a machine for casting metals in a chill mold

ABSTRACT

An arrangement for guiding the movable plate of a horizontal press in a machine for casting metals in a chill mold is characterized by the plate being simply supported at the bottom, resting on two horizontal slides, and being suspended from above by rods from horizontal guiding columns of the machine along which it slides.

United States Patent 1 [111 3,913,659

Chatourel 1 Oct. 21, 1975 [5 ARRANGEMENT FOR GUIDING THE 1,634,152 6/1927 Lee et al 249/82 x MOVABLE PLATE 0}: A HORIZONTAL 2,591,858 4/1952 Ostendorf.... 249/82 X 2,719,761 10/1955 Bonnafe 308/3 R PRESS IN A MACHINE FOR CASTING 3,128,073 4/1964 Berlyn 308 3 R METALS IN A CHILL MOLD Pierre Chatourel, Chaville, France Regie Nationale Des Usines Renault, Boulogne-Billancourt, France Jan. 25, 1974 Inventor:

Assignee:

Filed:

Appl. No.:

Foreign Application Priority Data Feb. 1, 1973 France 73.03510 US. Cl 164/303; 308/3 R; 164/412 Int. Cl. B22D 17/00; F16C 17/22 Field of Search 308/3 R, 3 A; 249/82;

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 12/1914 Mumford 308/3 R Primary Examiner-Francis S. Husar Assistant ExaminerJohn S. Brown Attorney, Agent, or FirmOblon, Fisher, Spivak McClelland & Maier [5 7 ABSTRACT An arrangement for guiding the movable plate of a horizontal press in a machine for casting metals in a chill mold is characterized by the plate being simply supported at the bottom, resting on two horizontal slides, and being suspended from above by rods from horizontal guiding columns of the machine along which it slides.

4 Claims, 1 Drawing Figure U.S. Patent Oct. 21, 1975 ARRANGEMENT FOR GUIDING THE MOVABLE PLATE OF A HORIZONTAL PRESS IN A MACHINE FOR CASTING METALS IN A CHILL MOLD BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates generally to metallurgical processes for casting metals in chill molds and more particularly to improvements in machines for performing such casting.

In a press for casting metals in a chill mold, it is necessary that the construction thereof permits proper guidance of the movable plate of the press in order to avoid rapid wear of the parts, that is, of the guiding columns, the vertical faces of the plates, and the like, and to permit easy extraction of the casting. It is difficult to obtain such satisfactory guiding of the movable plate upon heating, for the plates, both fixed and movable, undergo expansions and deformations varying according to the direction of thermal conduction from the hot mold, the molten metal and the furnace, and the guiding columns experience significant-variations in expansion along their lengths.

In US. Pat. No. 3,727,674, corresponding to the French Pat. No. 6,927,058 filed in the name of the applicant, there is described an arrangement materially improving the sliding behavior of the upper movable plate of a vertical press, which is remarkable in that the movable plate bears four straps articulated at a point of its diagonals, being held in position elastically. The straps support the sliding sleeves, free to shift along the direction of the diagonals and pivoting about a perpendicular axis.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with the present invention, in order to improve the quality and the rhythm by lateral injection, judiciously distributing the metal inside the mold, the latter is mounted horizontally instead of vertically in a low pressure casting machine. Therefore, the movable plate is no longer of a simple form permitting application of the system described.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved arrangement for guiding the movable plate of a press for casting metals in a chill mold which alleviates or compensates for normal expansion problems encountered in such devices and which is less subject to wear than previously designed guiding units.

In conformity with the present invention, the ar-' rangement for guiding the movable plate of a press for casting metals in a chill mold remedies the difficulties due to expansion by absorbing and compensating the resulting dimensional changes, and it is particularly suited to large machines. The press is noteworthy in having for this purpose a plate bearer simply resting on two slides and suspended from two horizontal columns of the machine.

The means for obtaining this compensation of expansion are of two sorts, first one in which the supports of the surfaces on which the movable plate slides are given such an inclination as to contain the main directions of expansion, and second, the movable plate is suspended from the guiding columns by means of two lateral rods. This mechanism has in addition the advantage of preventing any rotation of the movable plate.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING Other characteristics and attendant advantages of the present invention will be more fully appreciated as the same becomes better understood from the following detailed description, when considered in connection with the accompanying drawing, wherein the sole FIG- URE is a transverse view of a horizontal die casting machine, partially in section, with an arrangement included therein conforming with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the drawing, the movable plate 1, shown in right section with certain internal details in partial section, of a conventional horizontal die casting machine of the type also having a fixed part, receiving an injection tube, not shown, rests on-a guiding bed 4 of a machine consisting of two horizontal slides 2. The movable plate 1 contacts the guiding bed 4 through slide blocks 2a thereon having contact surfaces 2b inclined to a horizontal plane at angles a and being chosen so that the main directions of expansion 0a, 0a originating at the center of the metal injection tube entering the die, and hence in the hottest point 0 thereof, being the central point of arrival of the liquid metal, and along which the deformations are the greatest, coincide with the directions of the planes of sliding in the right section of the arrangement. At the top of the mechanism, two oppositely disposed linking rods or tether brackets 3 are rotatably carried from their top ends respectively on two horizontally disposed guiding columns 5 and support at their lower ends on pins 6 extending therefrom the two upper ends of the movable plate 1, the pins 6 being pivotally secured to the movable plate 1 to permit rotation of the rods 3 about columns 5 upon expansion or contraction of the movable plate.

In operation, when the liquid metal is injected into the mold, thus heating the movable plate thereof intensely around the central point 0 of injection, heat conduction in all directions from point 0 manifests itself in each direction by an expansion of the metallic mass of the movable plate 1, which is more pronounced the greater the mass of metal encountered. Thus, the lower end of the movable plate 1 exhibits, under the influence of the heat, the main directions of expansion 0a and 0a along the planes of the slide block contact surfaces 2b. Expansion occurs then without jamming by simply slipping on the blocks, as indicated by arrows a, a.

As far as the upper end of the movable plate 1 is concerned, expansion occurs along the directions Ob and Ob. This elongation produces rotation of the linking rods 3 around the guiding columns 5 in the general direction indicated by arrows b, b, thus causing a very gentle upward movement of the movable plate 1.

Further, the existence of a temperature gradient due to heating of the stationary or fixed part of the machine, as already indicated, not being shown, but being conventional in form and receiving the injector tube causes the columns 5 to spread apart and the rods 3 to rotate about their lower axes, or about pins 6, without the risk of jamming, in spite of the resulting lack of parallelism of the columns.

Obviously, many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in light of these teachings. It is to be understood therefore, that within the scope of the appended claims the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically disclosed herein.

What is claimed as new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a machine for casting metals in a chill mold characterized by a horizontal press having a stationary die part, in which an injection tube is received, and a movable die plate, the improvement comprising;

a guide bed,

a pair of horizontal slides on said guide bed for supporting said movable plate;

a pair of horizontalguiding columns disposed above said movable plate and generally oriented in the same direction as said pair of slides;

a pair of linking members being respectively pivotally secured at an upper end thereof to different ones of said pair of guiding columns and pivotally secured at a lower end thereof to opposite ends of said movable plate;

whereby said movable plate is suspended from said linking members while being slidably supported on said horizontal slides to compensate for heat expansion of the die parts.

2. Aguiding arrangement as in claim 1, wherein the plane sliding surfaces of said horizontal slides and said movable plate are inclined so as to coincide withthe:

main directions of expansion of said movable plate,

wherein the planes of the sliding surfaces have an inter- 7 section passing through the center of expansion of said movable plate. 

1. In a machine for casting metals in a chill mold characterized by a horizontal press having a stationary die part, in which an injection tube is received, and a movable die Plate, the improvement comprising: a guide bed; a pair of horizontal slides on said guide bed for supporting said movable plate; a pair of horizontal guiding columns disposed above said movable plate and generally oriented in the same direction as said pair of slides; a pair of linking members being respectively pivotally secured at an upper end thereof to different ones of said pair of guiding columns and pivotally secured at a lower end thereof to opposite ends of said movable plate; whereby said movable plate is suspended from said linking members while being slidably supported on said horizontal slides to compensate for heat expansion of the die parts.
 2. A guiding arrangement as in claim 1, wherein the plane sliding surfaces of said horizontal slides and said movable plate are inclined so as to coincide with the main directions of expansion of said movable plate, with the result that the expansion is absorbed by the slipping of the lower end of the movable plate on the slides.
 3. A guiding arrangement as set forth in claim 1, wherein said linking members are mounted with an inclination such that a departure from parallelism of said horizontal guiding columns due to intense heating of a fixed supporting plate does not cause malfunctioning of the movable plate with respect to the fixed plate.
 4. A guiding arrangement as set forth in claim 2, wherein the planes of the sliding surfaces have an intersection passing through the center of expansion of said movable plate. 